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Last Updated: Sep 8th, 2009 - 08:07:52 |
Too Many Camel Committees: Part Two
by John Ohliger
October 14, 1991
"A camel looks like a horse that was planned by a committee." Old joke.
Once upon a time there was a young camel who heard he had been created by a committee of professional adult educators. George, for that was the camel's name, was confused. So he asked his parents for more information about where he came from. When he inquired, his mother and father exchanged worried glances. "From Damascus," his mother finally replied. Hardly a satisfactory answer! So George decided to look elsewhere for an explanation.
Who says scholarly adult education writing must be convoluted, jargon filled, dull, and boring? Recently, I opened a session on "professionalism" at Northern Illinois University graduate seminar on issues in adult education by asking the participants to complete the above fable.
That's the way I began this column for November 6,1989. I then presented four of the most creative responses from the seminar. Here are two more stunning ones there wasn't room for:
A Practical Options Package
NUMBER FIVE: Logically, George sought expertise -- he was an "issue" of adult education. His parents said he came from "Damascus" - to the "eye" of George's hearing, "Damn, ask us!" Translation, look for expertise. So he sought the committee responsible for his issue. His committee assured George he had been given everything he needed, and, of course, that made him better than he would have been naturally (that is, without professional intervention). The committee equipped George with a practical "options package" improving on the basic "horse" - still a basic equine configuration: four legs, a brain, a beating heart. But now the attractive looks and streamlining had been customized to more practical adaptations for stamina, endurance, and dependability, accompanied by a dispositional adjustment - dignity and grace became nomadic absence of mind, occasional angry knee-jerk propensity and propensity for resistance punctuated with droll. George could go longer, serve better - with less pleasure, style, and independence. Positive and negative crimes were preempted by the committee of "Damn, ask us" to keep things level, to keep George from ever having to be confused.
The Commissioner of Names
NUMBER SIX: George then went to Damascus to find out how he came into being. He met a person who knew his parents. George raised the question: "Where did I come from?"
The man stated, "You were the result of a committee of individuals who made a decision that you should be called a 'camel.'"
George raised the question: "Why a 'camel'?"
The strange man replied, "Go ask Bob. He was on the committee then."
George sought out Bob and Bob stated, "I didn't agree that you should be called a 'camel,' I voted against the name. You should talk to Ms. Murphy who voted for that name." George sought out Ms. Murphy, who said, "I didn't agree with the name, but had to vote in favor in order to remain on the committee. I felt that even though you looked different from the other horses, you shouldn't be named a 'camel.' I yielded to the pressure of the other members. Mr. Jacks, the chairperson influenced me. Go ask Mr. Jacks why he wanted the name."
George then found Mr. Jacks, who was not very friendly. He said, "George, why are you stirring up a fuss about your name. Didn't your parents tell you, you came from Damascus?" George agreed, but continued to ask, "Why name me a 'camel'?"
Finally, Mr. Jacks said, "There was pressure from the Commissioner of Names. He didn't want you to be a part of the system, so he named you a 'camel' because you looked different. The Commissioner, who has passed on, felt that it was the right thing to do."
George asked, "But how can you individuals decide who I am?"
Mr. Jacks replied, "We are professional adult educators and we know what is best for you."
Tribal Notes
Then I asked readers to send in more. One person who did was Clif Bennett. Clif publishes a very provocative newsletter with witty comments on Canadian and world developments in adult education and related realms. You won't find any impenetrable and unreadable scholarly jargon in Tribal Notes. To get on the mailing list for Tribal Notes write him at R.R. 2, Hawkestone, Ontario LOL 1TO, Canada. Here's Clif's response:
NUMBER SEVEN:
George eventually found an archaeologist who specialized in sites related to extinct ideas about Adult Education. Following the guidelines provided by this worthy, George slogged into the Empty Quarter of the Arabian peninsula, seeking the Talking Wisdom Stone left behind by a great and vanished race of Adult Educators. Many dunes later, wobbly and dehydrated, he stumbled over the stone. "Where did I come from?" he gasped. The stones considered, and referred the question to an ad hoc committee of its quarks and leptons. As George sank slowly into the sand, it replied, "Your question is based on a medieval assumption known as Causation. This assumption has been declared frivolous. Your question is meaningless."
Pedagogical Gobbledegook
I've been doing some research on just why it is that so much scholarly writing in adult education journals and elsewhere is so dull and hard to understand. The problem is not new, but the great and growing extent of it is. Back in 1881 a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta included: "If this young man expresses himself in terms too deep for me, Why, what a singularly deep young man this deep young man must be!"
By the early 1950s, Eduard Lindeman cried out that among adult educators "the language employed is too academic and too technical." At the same time the popular writer Stuart Chase cautioned authors for adult education publications: "Beware of P.G. Pedagogical Gobbledegook!" By the 1990s it has become so bad that Bob Blakely, the former vice president of the Fund for Adult Education, now says, "Adult educators are all technique these days but their language tries to hide this fact."
Though it's clear that the language of adult education academics and others is muddy, it's not clear why. Various authorities believe it's because the universities are attempting to counteract their declining importance, because of "economic stagnation and the power of the New Right," or because of the current climate of fear. Others ascribe it to the male dominant culture, the belief that language itself is life, or that academics believe power rests on the ability to cloak their language behind a veil of inflated and intimidating jargon. The most cogent view comes from Page Smith's powerful 1990 book, Killing the Spirit: Higher Education in America: "Boredom is the necessary condition of any education which teaches us to manipulate facts and suppress their meaning."
If you want to look further into these vexing issues and help figure out what to do about them, I'll be glad to send you an annotated, four-page bibliography of the 25 sources I've located. Just send one dollar in advance to Basic Choices/Camel, 730 W. Jefferson, Springfield, IL 62702 (Please, no requests for billing).
LERN has granted non-exclusive permission to this website to post any articles written by John Ohliger for Adult and Continuing Education Today.
© Copyright 2004 John Ohliger.com
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